The New Way Forward for UK Drivers

On Monday, British PM Boris Johnson announced in his keynote speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that incoming regulations will require new builds to have electric vehicle (EV) charging points. This new regulation is accompanied by an additional 145,000 charging points that will be installed in order to encourage the “green industrial revolution”.

“After almost a century of using roughly the same technology, we are going to change radically,” Johnson stated. “250 years after we launched the first industrial revolution, we are showing the world how to power past coal.”

This new revelation comes at an opportune time as the price of petrol has continued to rise, which the RAC states, is putting financial pressure on drivers. However, they say that this new regulation comes with its own set of concerns: namely the lack of parking found in many city homes.

In what he called “a new rich harvest”, all forms of transportation as well as: farming methods, industrial processes and power generation, will be altered to be powered by green alternatives. He stated that in 2012 we were still 40% dependent on coal, now, 10 years later, coal accounts for only 2% of our power. By 2024, he affirms it will be down to 0.

This drastic change, Johnson said, comes after The COP26 Glasgow Summit, which saw motor manufacturers, representing a third of the world market (including the EU and America), announcing that they will be going electric by 2035.

“The force driving that change… it will be the consumers, it will be the young people of today, the disciples of David Attenborough, not just in this country but around the world, who can see the consequences of climate change and who will be demanding better from us,” Johnson said.

The RAC Director of EVs, Sarah Winward-Kotecha responded to these new changes stating that this “future-proofing” is a “welcome move by the Government” however, “it’s important to remember that a lot of new housing stock – especially in cities – doesn’t even come with any car parking at all, let alone provision for electric charge points.”

The RAC has therefore continued their call for the installation of rapid charging hubs to be a priority. They want the charging points that are already installed in carparks at food courts and supermarkets to be upgraded with rapid chargers.

This response from the RAC comes only two days after they released a statement following their Fuel Watch data which shows that currently, drivers are having to unfairly fork out an extra £3.50 for a tank.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said that “unfortunately, during Covid we’ve seen retailers increase their margins by 2p a litre.”

“This seems very harsh on drivers,” he continued, “considering how many are struggling financially because of the inflated cost of filling up”.

The RAC also found that: around half of drivers (46%) will be forced to cut other household spending as a result of petrol and diesel prices continuing to rise beyond their current record high levels.

According to Pod Point, one of the UK’s leading providers of EV charging, for a typical electric car with a 60kWh battery and approx. 200-mile range, a full charge at home would cost about £9.20. In contrast to the £80 drivers are paying for a full 55-litre tank, the switch to electric might just be favoured by drivers sick of the fluctuating petrol prices.

Image by Andrew Roberts via Unsplash